New envoy to London presents credentials

Bangladesh High Commissioner to United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasneem has presented her credentials to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace in London.

Marshal of the Diplomatic corps Alistair Harrison in his ceremonial attire came to the High Commission in Queens' gate to pick up and escort the high commissioner in a royal horse carriage with two escorting royal horse guards to the credential ceremony at the Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

Thousands of tourists greeted the high commissioner outside the Palace and throughout the horse carriage route took photographs, said a press release issued by the Press Wing of the Bangladesh High Commission in London yesterday.

The high commissioner formally presented the Letters of her Credence and the Letter of Recall of her predecessor to the Queen.

Reminiscing the visits of the Queen to Dhaka in 1961 and to independent Bangladesh in 1983, the High Commissioner reaffirmed the high esteem and admiration which the people of Bangladesh still hold in their hearts for the Queen and praised her six decades of leadership as the Head of the 53-nation Commonwealth.

She also requested Her Majesty to include two forests of Bangladesh including one in Sylhet in the "Queen's Commonwealth Canopy", an initiative begun in 2015 as a network of forest conservation programmes throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.

The high commissioner gave her a brief account of developments in different sectors including education, healthcare, and women empowerment in Bangladesh in recent years under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, a good number of Lords, Baronesses, MPs, MEPs, heads of diplomatic missions, high officials of the Palace and Foreign Office, Home Office, DFID, Department of Transport, Secretary General of the Commonwealth and Secretary General the IMO, academics, professionals, journalists, eminent community members, social and business leaders attended the reception of over 350 distinguished guests.

High Commissioner Tasneem, joined the London Mission on 30 November 2018 as the 20th High Commissioner and the first woman High Commissioner for Bangladesh to the UK, Ireland and Liberia.

She has also been appointed as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the IMO.

Prior to this, Tasneem was the Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand and Cambodia and Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UNESCAP from 2014-2018.